Janet Baker

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Janet Baker (1967)

Dame Janet Baker , CH , DBE , FRSA (born August 21, 1933 in Hatfield , South Yorkshire , England ) is a British mezzo-soprano and alto singer. She was raised to the nobility in 1976 as the Dame of the British Empire .

Life

Janet Baker discovered her interest in classical music very early on, which was encouraged by her parents. She spent her youth first in York , later in Grimsby , where she was already well received as an amateur singer. Baker studied music in London from 1953 with Helene Isepp and Meriel St. Clair and performed as a concert singer. In 1956, the 23-year-old won the Kathleen Ferrier Prize. She then continued her studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum . She made her debut in 1959 in the role of Miss Róza in The Secret at the Oxford University Opera Club . In the same year she made her debut in Glyndebourne . In the following years she appeared in all the major English opera houses. Her stage repertoire included all the major roles of the baroque operas (Gluck, Handel, Monteverdi) and operatic works by Wagner, Berlioz, Mozart, Strauss, Britten and Donizetti. Janet Baker sang at the Edinburgh and Glyndebourne Festivals almost every year.

Janet Baker also made a name for herself as a song and oratorio interpreter. The artist “was soon considered the most important oratorio alto of her generation”. She devoted herself (accompanied by Martin Isepp and Gerald Moore , among others ) not only to the native English, but above all to the French and German piano song repertoire, as well as various orchestral song cycles: Her recordings of Berlioz's Nuits d'été with Sir John Barbirolli , the Sea Pictures by Edward Elgar as well as the Kindertotenlieder and Rückert-Lieder by Gustav Mahler are among her most fascinating achievements and still have the status of recordings to this day.

While she has been heard as an oratorio and concert singer around the world, she strictly limited her presence in opera productions to the British Isles. In this way, as one of the most sought-after singers of her time, she retained full control over her artistic and private existence and protected herself from too early wear and tear. Her last year on the opera stage was filmed under the title Full Circle ; it ended in Glyndebourne in September 1982 with a performance of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice . Janet Baker continued her concert career for a while.

Queen Elizabeth II elevated the artist to the nobility in 1976 as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire .

Reviews

"The alto voice of the artist, who has been compared to the great Kathleen Ferrier again and again, is characterized by its richness of tone as well as its exemplary art of interpretation"

- Kutsch, Riemens: Large song dictionary

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Large singing dictionary. First volume: A – L. Bern / Stuttgart 1987, Col. 140-141
personal data
SURNAME Baker, Janet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baker, Lady Janet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer with a mezzo-soprano and alto voice
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Hatfield , South Yorkshire , England